Friday, April 16, 2010

Surname Saturday...

What I know of my family's genealogy is largely based in Indian Territory and the state of Oklahoma. The oldest record I know is that of my Great Great Grandmother Margaret Ann WILSON nee ALEXANDER who was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama circa 1822.

Margaret Ann traveled to Indian Territory on the so called "Trail of Tears" around 1843 with Colonel Benjamin LOVE as his slave. Benjamin LOVE his immediate family and auxillary families were Chickasaw "mixed blood" Indians and were one of the largest slave holding families in the Chickasaw tribe.

Margaret Ann would become the matriarch of many Indian Territory Freedmen families whose names are well known among those who research this unique and rich history. She gave birth to many children by an enslaved man by the name of Cornelius PICKENS.

Of this union there are five children documented their names are: Salina PICKENS, Isabella PICKENS, Susan PICKENS with two known sons named Colbert ALEXANDER and William ALEXANDER. Additionally Margaret had several other children who were born prior to the Civil War and emancipation of Chickasaw and Choctaw slaves in 1866.

She had a daughter by a man named Mink LOVE whose name was Louisa LOVE. She had a son by a man named Philip WILSON, whose name was John WILSON. Margaret had one other child named Bettie LOVE by a relative of her original Chickasaw owner Benjamin, his name was Robert Howard LOVE and their daughter was named Bettie LIGON nee LOVE.

Salina married a man by the name of Culosh HAWKINS and gave birth to six children. Isabella married a man named Henry CLAY and gave birth to ten children. Susan was married to Sank JACKSON and together they reared six children.

Margaret son, Colbert who appears to be named after her father had one child named Margaret ALEXANDER whose mother was Silla JAMES. Cornelius and Margaret's son William married Victoria MAYS and together they reared five children.

Margaret's daughter Bettie married William Hadley LIGON and together they reared eight children. These comprise just a few of the surnames I research in my family's genealogy:

4 comments:

I deleted my last comment as it wasn't so polite. I am a descendant of Thomas Love. We can cleat the air about who her father was. There is a simple solution. Males can have DNA to link them back to ancestors. My son will be having his DNA tested so if you would like we can compare. There is no doubt who my ancestors were. The Love genes are still quite very strong among our relatives. We would love to invite you to The Descendants of Thomas Love aND Chickasaw wives sally aND Mahota on facebook. There are many descendants and we share info. Maybe together we can all find a link. While Betty is not listed in any documents it doesn't mean she isn't one of his children. As far as her mother being an enslaved woman. Betty was born in 1865 so she would have been a freed slave. She would have been born the same year his wife Sallie died after birthing a child of theirs. He is buried next to his wife. I'm not trying to be rude or insulting by any means but I still haven't figured out if being buried with her why would he have children with other women including Joe N Loves mother. Not saying it's not possible though. Throughout many of those years after Sallie death he moved around quite a bit. Especially in the 60s and 70s when he was tried multiple times for murder of what they called a negro on the forms. I will be posting all of that data on our group page. If we can prove that your grandmother was in fact his child the tribe should at least send an aknowledgment of her heritage. Please consider joining us in this group. I apologize for the way I may have come off. But, please understand that native Americans were also slaves at one time. They were also beaten, raped and scalped. We as Americans have to stand up and mover forward instead of living in the past. We are looking forward to you joining our group.

I'm not sure how I could contribute to your Facebook page or how I would be received by those who subscribe to it. I have come across the attitudes of resistance on more than one occasion and I'm not sure if that is an exercise I care to engage.

On another note you do have one member of your group I am familiar with and we met years ago before Facebook, Ancestry's domination and the host of other online sites that we see today.

I will forever be in this person's debt for taking the time to share their research concerning the LOVE family because it allowed me to discover how the larger story of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen were a significant part of my families history.

That despite how it appears has been my main focus for research; I have always found the larger story of the community of Freedmen and their descendants a thoroughly interesting story from the beginning. I took the position that if I researched the story of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen and the communities in which they lived I would in turn discover my families story.

The reason for this is the story of the Indian Territory Freedmen has largely been ignored. If not for scholars like Dr. Daniel Littlefield, Jesse Schreier, and Angela Walton-Raji, I would have never known anything about this story or for that matter my ancestors.

If I don't tell the story of the Chickasaw Nation as you know it, it is because everyone else and their cousin seem to be telling that story, that is not my cross to bear. I'm trying to tell the story of as Dr. Littlefield so eloquently put it, "A People Without a Country." If I may paraphrase they are also a People Without a Story. This is not to diminish your story, your ancestors or the tribes but there is more to the story than you or I have been told and it does include the history and genealogy of the Indian Territory Freedmen.

For the record, my DNA profile has been on 23andMe as well as Ancestry for years and it would appear a few people with Chickasaw and LOVE ancestry show up as "distant cousins." One of these days they will feel brave enough to answer my request and "share." what could be some interesting connections.

The members of this group are very understanding and caring people. I spoke to a few of the members and they agree that this should be heard more and understood. Please email me at tresa.curtis@gmail.com.